Kerry wrong about pipeline

A U.S. decision on whether a pipeline to bring oil from Canada to this country will not be rushed, Secretary of State John Kerry told Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird last week.

Kerry insisted “all the appropriate effort is being put into trying to get this done effectively and rapidly.” Kerry knows that is far from true.

Part of the Keystone pipeline already has been built in the United States. But the Keystone XL pipeline project to bring oil here from Canada has been delayed repeatedly by President Barack Obama’s administration.

A permit application for the Canadian segment of the pipeline was filed in September 2008. U.S. officials have had at least since then – more than five years – to consider environmental and other impacts of the pipeline.

That is longer than it took Americans to win World War II – longer than it took to research and build the nuclear arms that won the war against Japan.

U.S. officials have had plenty of time to consider the pipeline. It has not been approved because Obama wants to placate radical environmentalists who oppose the project.